An attempt to scrub the gathering moss off some stones and help them keep rolling smoothly along ... Thoughts on information technology and anything else, by Tony Austin, after a lifetime in Science and then the IT industry.

Friday, May 05, 2006

Business model of Web 2.0 startups

UPDATE - 10 June 2006:Just about everywhere that you turn these days, you bump into some sort of article or weblog post about Web 2.0. It seems to have generated an unstoppable momentum, a sort of Web 2.0 runaway train.

Most of the commentaries are about technical and from the architectural perspective, but here's one of the relatively few about the venture capital side of things: A VC's view of Web 2.0

"Web 2.0 can’t see beyond itself. ... We’re failing our potential. ... We should be moving forward. We should be innovating. It’s no accident that people view the Web 2.0 sphere with the same economic, technological, and moral trepidation that they did the Dot Com era."

About Me

Tony Austin ... Trained in science and engineering, still tend to approach life from a scientist's or engineer's viewpoint, but over the years have picked up skills in sales/marketing, journalism and other non-technical areas. Taught Chemistry / Math / Science in high schools. Joined IBM Australia in 1970, retired in 1995, since then have been an "independent consultant" [an oxymoron]. So now I have over four decades in the IT business, still enjoying it enormously - except, that is, for the same silly mistakes being repeated time and time again in function and interfaces, won't we ever learn? ... Decided to retire from IT consulting at end of 2013 after 44 years in the industry, closed Asia/Pacific Computer Services then, but am still regularly writing technology articles as an industry observer.